Priority QDGC's in KZN

The QDGC colours have changed again slightly since the last post. This time Barry Porter has added a pentad in 3029DD, so we are now down to three boundary QDGC's, along with our two core QDGC's that are still empty.

Northern KZN have also moved 2730CB from 33% coverage to more than 33%.

Well done to all involved with these efforts.

Priority QDGC's in KZN

Since the last time that I posted these maps on the 20th of November 2009, we have progressed to only two core QDGC's with no cover in KZN.

Many thanks to Sharon Louw for filling in a pentad in 2830BD FORT LOUIS and Alan Manson for filling in a pentad 2731DC NONGOMA.

This means that we only have two core pentads left: 2731DD NGXONGWANE & 2830DA COLLESSIE.

The other QDGC's left are all boundary QDGC's:

2731AB: mostly in Swaziland [1 pentad partly in KZN]

2832BC: 8.4 ha of mostly beach just North of Mission Rocks, rest is Indian Ocean

3028BB: mostly Eastern Cape & some Lesotho [1 pentad partly in KZN]

3029DD: mostly Eastern Cape [2 pentads partly in KZN]

I must also mention the great work done by Northern Natal, Rina Pretorius and Klaus Heyer especially, and Alan Manson [from the Midlands], who have filled in an incredible number of gaps in the north-west of KZN. This work has changed a number of QDGC's to lighter [or no] colour on these maps.

There has also been some lightening of the QDGC colours in Zululand, despite the tragic passing of Pete Outhwaite. Well done to Richard Johnstone, Johan Gouws, Frank Rautenbach and Ben Baxter especially.

Southern KZN has also seen some movement, thanks to Barry Porter and Trish Strachan for their hard work.

I must also mention that a number of other birders have helped push KZN along smartly this summer, Tim Woods and Iain Guthrie deserve a mention here. Many thanks to all the others who have helped as well, even if I have not mentioned you specifically.

Last 15 days Submissions

The last fifteen days saw 40 observers submit 147 cards for KZN. 14 of these cards were for new pentads.
This equates to 9.8 cards per day and 3.7 cards per observer.
As matter of interest over the last few periods for which I have statistics [ending 5/12/09; 20/11/09; 5/11/09 & 19/10/09], we have been averaging 9.8; 9.9; 9.5 & 11.3 cards/day respectively, with 3.7; 3.9, 3.8 & 3.4 cards/observer. As can be seen we seem to have a fairly regular submission rate, even with a constant change in observers.
Looking at the new pentads covered per day, the values change quite considerably over the same period: 0.93; 1.33; 1.18 & 0.53. We seem to have hit a peak in cards for new areas from 5/11/09 to 20/11/09, where we had 1.33 cards/day for new pentads. As can be expected this is likely to tail off, as we now have 61.5% of KZN covered.

Priority QDGC's in KZN (again)

Here are two maps of showing the priority QDGC's in KZN. The first map shows only the QDGC's, while the second has the pentad coverage as at 07h00 this morning.
We now have only FOUR core QDGC's with no coverage:

2731DC NONGOMA
2731DD NGXONGWANE
2830BD FORT LOUIS
2830DA COLLESSIE

There are also four boundary QDGC's with no coverage:

2731AB - mostly in Swaziland
2832BC - which 400m of beach and some dune forest north of Mission Rocks at St Lucia
3028BB - mostly Eastern Cape with some Lesotho
3029DD - Eastern Cape, but has three pentads touching KZN.

Who Has Been Atlassing in KZN

In the period 19 October to 5 of November 2009, we have had 162 cards submitted for KZN, 20 of which were for new pentads. There were 43 observers who submitted cards.

This works out to 9.5 cards per day over 17 days, at 3.8 cards per observer. Of course some people managed more cards, Tim wood managed a staggering 26 cards, while Rina Pretorius managed a to cover whopping 8 new pentads.

In the last reporting period of 15 days, 4/10 to 19/10, we had 49 observers submitting 169 cards, only 8 of which were for new pentads. [11.3 cards/days at 3.4 cards/observer].

Well done to all who are participating, every contribution is valuable.

Prioity QDGC's in KZN

These are the QDGC's with absolutely no pentads covered as at 8 October 2009.

The biggest gap still remains at Pomeroy, Collessie & Fort Louis (2830CB, DA & BD respectively).

The two empty QDGC's west of Mkuze are 2731DC & DD, Nongoma and Ngxongwane.

East of St Lucia is the empty QDGC 2832BC. The problem with this one is that there is only 0.18 km² of land in this QDGC, in one pentad. This lies just North of Mission Rocks.





This is the same map as above, I have simply added in the pentad coverage layer as it stood at 8 October 2009.

For for some more maps regarding SABAP 2 and the comparison with SABAP1 look at http://colinsbirds.blogspot.com/

KZN Atlassing

This last stats period of 17 days, which included the long weekend saw 51 observers submit 152 cards for KZN, of which 17 were for new pentads. Put another way we averaged 8.9 cards a day and three cards per observer.